If you’re not from Cambodia or Switzerland, there’s a good chance that you haven’t heard the amazing harmonica playing of Bonny B. I hope you’ll love this 2 minute performance as much as I do. (Rich distorted tone - Joyful Sonny Terry-esque whooping - Killer train groove - what’s not to love? 
)
I teach this kind of train groove in my Beginner to Boss course, in Module 2 Lessons 12-14, and again in Module 5 Lesson 3.
But here’s one great takeaway from this train performance:
What creates excitemen t with the train groove? The acceleration! Right? As the train gets faster and faster, the excitement builds…
But notice that he doesn’t start speeding up until 1:10 into the 2:12 performance. This requires RESTRAINT. The first minute he’s playing he’s keeping the tempo consistent.
You might also note at 1:10 that he only accelerates for about 10 seconds, and then keeps the faster speed consistent from about 1:20 to about 1:40where he does his final acceleration to its climax around 1:47 before he starts slowing back down to bring the train into the station.
So whereas a beginner might start accelerating too fast out of the gate and then hit max speed 20 seconds into the performance, Bonny B shows performance mastery here by keeping the tempo constant for the first minute.
This doesn’t only apply to train grooves. For anything you do on the harmonica, this principle is golden:
RESTRAINT at the beginning sets the stage for CLIMAX later.
Music , like life, is all about tension and release . Thinking about this strategically will serve you well. It all comes down to developing the skill of RESTRAINT at the beginning.
Oh, by the way, Bonny B can play first position too, if you’re into that sorta thing. And if you like Gospel music, you might love this video.
So happy to hear you rocking and rolling down the track…
.